Review for Baby Driver

Baby is an amazing getaway driver who due to an accident suffers from tinnitus and to drown out the ringing constantly listens to music through a variety of iPods. He is forced to drive by a Criminal Mastermind known as Doc and must complete a number of jobs before he can be free from his debt to him. Each time the gang changes featuring the likes of sensual couple Buddy and Darling, the violent Griff and the psychotic Bats. The crimes are high impact heists all requiring Baby's amazing driving skills to get away which he does to the beat of some incredible music.

Between jobs, Baby spends his time listening to music with his deaf foster father and the local diner where he meets new waitress Deborah. Stunned by her beauty, Baby gets to know her more and he plans to drive away with her for freedom. During all this, Baby constantly listens to a variety of music that scores the action packed car chases, gun fire, dancing and romance that makes this one of the most entertaining films released this year.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this film. I was always hit and miss when it came to Edgar Wright's films as they always flew too close between brilliantly clever and smug for my liking. This film was entertaining from start to finish and actually reminded me more of Ben Wheatley's Free Fire in its style and look. The use of music was amazing and it is such a shame that the film doesn't come with a free soundtrack as I would have listened to this all day.

But...

My only real issue with this film is that lead Ansel Elgort is so boring in this role and I really didn't connect with him at all. This would have suited a more 'geeky' type as his dancing and moving shaded a little too close to Tobey Maguire's Dark Suit Peter Parker from Spiderman 3. The other ensemble cast members are fantastic with Kevin Spacey owning his scenes as Doc and with amazing support from Jamie Foxx as the crazy Bats and Jon Hamm as far away from his Mad Man character as the smooth, but slightly on edge Buddy is fantastic. Lily James as Deborah is just far too adorable and at times I had forgotten she was actually English.

The action throughout is great and you can tell that Wright had been a fan of films like Heat with its heist and bank robbery elements which look amazing and the choerography with the music is so slick that at times it could almost be a musical. The humour is pitched just right with the action and rather than being slightly smug like his films with Simon Pegg it all works.

Extras include two commentaries one solo with Edgar Wright and the other with him and the Director of Photography Bill Pope. Unlike a lot of solo commentaries Edgar Wright really feels like someone who could talk about films and filmmaking all day long. It would have been nice for him to have had someone to bounce conversation topics off and so the one with Bill Pope is more entertaining, but they are both worth a listen.

There are four featurettes (which can be watched as one documentary which is good) and these cover the music, the cast, Edgar Wright 's directing style and almost twenty year journey to get this film made and a look at how the incredible car chases were created. These are all great and it is amazing to see how Wright and the crew were editing the film on set to make sure that every shot was perfect.

One of the most interesting extras was the inclusion of the Mint Royale Music Video for the song “Blue Song” which was directed by Wright and is almost a four minute embryonic version of this film with Noel Fielding as the getaway driver, dancing and reacting to music. It also includes the great head bopping to the music with the windscreen wipers which is just perfect.

Baby Driver is a great film and though I wasn't a fan of Elgort, his performance did not bring down the film to the point of being unwatchable and I can understand why people like his smooth, boyish looks. The mix of music, action and comedy was perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed watching this multiple times. It is very rare that I will do this and I can't even remember the last time I saw a film in a cinema and said afterwards 'I can't wait to own this film'. This is a film that has a great ensemble cast, great music and great action scenes that makes it a hugely enjoyable film to watch again and again.